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Nicholas II of Russia
( , died in the Russian SFSR) |religion = |birth = |death = |cause of death = }}}} |occupation = |spouse = Alexandra of Hesse |children = Five |political office = of Russia}}, Grand Duke of Finland |family = George V of Britain (first cousin), Grand Duke Mikhail of Russia (brother) |house = Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov}} }} |cause of death = (presumably)|political office=Emperor of Russia }} Nicholas II (18 May 1868 – 17 July 1918) was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland. He ruled from 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917. His reign saw Imperial Russia go from being one of the foremost great powers of the world to an economic and military disaster during World War I. Even before the outbreak of World War I, Nicholas' reign was turbulent. A human stampede during the celebration Nicholas' 1896 coronation at Khodynka Field lead to the death of 1,389 people. The Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) was a disaster for the country, and Nicholas was held responsible, which in turn led to the Revolution of 1905. In January 1905, soldiers fired upon unharmed peaceful protesters in St. Petersburg in an event that came to be called "Bloody Sunday". In addition, Nicholas oversaw anti-Semitic pogroms and the execution of political opponents. As a consequence, he was given the nickname "Nicholas the Bloody" by his political adversaries. Nicholas approved the Russian mobilization on July 1914, which led to Germany declaring war on Russia on 1 August 1914. It is estimated that around 3,300,000 Russians were killed in the First World War. The Imperial Army's severe losses and the High Command's incompetent management of the war efforts, along with the lack of food and other supplies on the Home Front, were the leading causes of the February Revolution of 1917. Nicholas was forced to abdicate early in the Russian Revolution of 1917 on behalf of himself and his son. Nicholas II, his wife, his children, and prominent members of the family's attending staff were all murdered on the night of 17 July 1918, on the orders of Vladimir Lenin. Because he was killed on the orders of a man who imposed state-sponsored atheism on Russia, Nicholas II was canonized as a martyr of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Secular historians have variously interpreted Nicholas as a hero, a tyrant, a fool, a competent leader who just happened to be in the right place at the wrong time, or any number of other variants. Nicholas II in Worldwar Nicholas II 'had been the Tsar of Russia until he was forced to abdicate in 1917, and executed just over a year later by the Bolsheviks. In 1942, Fleetlord Atvar of the Race's Conquest Fleet was horrified to hear of the assassination of from Soviet Foreign Commissar Vyacheslav Molotov,In the Balance'', pg. 79. who had taken part in the Russian Revolution.Ibid. pg. 80. Atvar had assumed that hereditary monarchy was the only political system a "civilized society" would adapt, as this was the only known government ever seen in the histories of Home, Halless 1, and Rabotev 2.Ibid. The murder of an Emperor was such an unthinkable idea for the Race that its language did not include a word for such a crime. After briefly debating whether to refuse to recognize the regicidal Soviet regime as legitimate, Atvar decided to deal with Moscow as he would an imperial government because the events surrounding the death of Nicholas had already played out long before his fleet's arrival. However, by way of threatening Molotov, Atvar naively promised that "If need be, we will avenge your murdered emperor."Ibid., pg. 79. Atvar was unable to keep his vow following the Peace of Cairo. Nicholas was the first Tosevite for whom Atvar ever felt any sympathy. Nicholas II in "Uncle Alf" After Russia was defeated by Germany in the Great War of 1914, '''Nicholas II faced a communist revolution. In 1916, Kaiser Wilhelm II, both to show that no hard feelings remained from the 1914 war, and on general principles of monarchical self-interest, helped his cousin put down the revolution and keep his throne.Alternate Generals II, pg. 82; Atlantis and Other Places, pg. 343. In 1929, Feldwebel Adolf Hitler of the German Feldgendarmerie told his niece Geli Raubal that the Tsar "was and is a woolly headed fool of a Russian" for not hanging more revolutionaries in 1905 after a similar uprising occurred.Alternate Generals II, pg. 83.; Atlantis and Other Places, pg. 344. Nicholas II in Southern Victory In 1914, when Austria-Hungary issued a number of ultimata to Serbia following the assassination of Franz Ferdinand by a Serb in Sarajevo, Nicholas II (1868-c.1932) promised to support the Serbs should they refuse the ultimata. They did, and Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary, which had declared war on Serbia. The Great War followed.American Front, pg. 43. In 1917, after over two years of global war, Nicholas found himself facing a Red revolution, forcing Russia's withdrawal from the Great War.Breakthroughs, pg. 291. A protracted civil war followed. Ultimately, Nicholas and his supporters triumphed, and Nicholas remained emperor for the remainder of the 1920s.The Center Cannot Hold, pg. e.g., pg. 92.The Victorious Opposition, pg. 22.. The destruction resulting from the wars left Russia in such a poor state that in February 1929, she was forced to suspend payment of a loan to banks in Austria-Hungary.Ibid., pg. 226. This caused a chain effect that led in turn to the worldwide stock market crash of that year.Ibid., pg. 235. Nicholas died and was succeeded as Tsar by his brother Mikhail II in the early 1930s.Ibid. See also *Guntram of Unkerlant, a king in the Darkness universe, who is broadly based on Nicholas II, among other historical figures. *The late Czar of Russia, an analog of Nicholas II in The House of Daniel. References Category:Christian Saints Category:Grand Dukes Category:Heads of State of Finland Category:Prisoners Category:Romanovs Category:Smokers Category:Victoria's Family Category:Would-Be Assassinations (OTL)